Please stop praising hunting

PETA has written to President Obama asking him to please rethink his praise of hunting. There is nothing good about killing animals for sport or teaching our children to do so.Consider the case of 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Andrew Golden.They took the hunting guns of Andrew’s grandfather, who had taught Andrew to hunt, and used them to ambush their fellow students in Jonesboro, Ark.The massacre left four little girls and one teacher dead.The great humanitarian and Nobel prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer asked, “When will we reach the point that hunting, the pleasure of killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration?”More and more people are coming around to this way of thinking.According to the latest U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey, 13.7 million — just 6 percent — of Americans hunt, but a whopping 71.8 million Americans are wildlife watchers.People have learned that hunting causes animals unspeakable pain and suffering. Celebrate the outdoors and our fellow earthlings: Grab your kids and/or friends on a nice day and go hiking, biking, rock-climbing, boating, or bird-watching.And take along a camera, in case you spot an animal out there, enjoying life.

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